Long lost recording of Kano shihan speaking English in 1936

I got a pleasant surprise this week from budo bud Petr Březina who pointed this out:

A recording of an interview with Kanō shihan from December 9, 1936 was found in the archives of Czech Radio and publicly announced in October, 2025. In the interview, he spoke briefly in very clear Japanese, then switched to fluent, effortless English which he spoke longer.

Kanō shihan mentioned that was his third trip to Czechoslovakia and recounted his earlier trips, the meaning of jūdō exercise, the Olympics, and memories of his warm welcome during his prior trips, including once meeting the President. He also mentioned the Czech Sokol patriotic gymnastics movement, which was of great interest to Japanese searching for a modern gymnastics curriculum to adopt in the late 19th century (although Kanō seemed more impressed by Sokol, the final decision of the Japanese Ministry of Education was to adopt Swedish style gymnastics instead).

Recording at this link:

https://svet.rozhlas.cz/jana-bartosova-objev-rozhlasove-nahravky-s-hlasem-jigora-kana-9571451

What do you think of his voice? Does it match your expectations? While I expected him to be fluent in English, this was a bit of a surprise.

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